Exercise Research Update: Squat 4 Minutes Before Each Sprint | Hold the DB Right, When You Split Squat | Chains or Bands Will Vary Your Training & Maximize Your Power!

Don't forget to wait 4 minutes after your pre-sprint squats, otherwise the post-activation "bonus" is not going to show its maximal performance benefits.

Time for a brief review of the latest performance relevant exercise science from the Concordia University, the Palacky University in Olomouc and the University of Granada. Three studies that are packed with potentially performance-enhancing science on the post-activation effects of squatting before sprinting, the effect of different ways of holding your dumbbells during split and squats an walking lunges on muscle activity and the usefulness of adding bands and chains to your training regimen.

So, I guess it's best if I don't keep you on the not so tender hooks of suspense any longer and give you the elevator pitch of all three studies:

Read more short news at the SuppVersity

Exercise Research Uptake Nov '14 1/2

Exercise Research Uptake Nov '14 2/2

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Exercise Supplementation Quickie

Exercise Research Uptake Jan 12, 2015

Read the Latest Ex. Science Update

• Squat Before You Sprint (Wyland. 2015) - It's not exactly "news" that applying accommodating resistance combined with isoinertial resistance can effectively improve neuromuscular attributes important for sport performance.
  
  What is news, though, is the fact that short sprints can be acutely enhanced after several sets of back squats. News that was generated in a study involving twenty recreationally resistance trained males (age 23.3 ± 4.4 years; height: 178.9 ± 6.5 cm; weight: 88.3 ± 10.8 kg) who performed pre-post testing on 9.1 meter sprint time under three different conditions:

  "[O]n three separate days subjects either sat for five minutes (CTRL), performed 5 sets of 3 repetitions at 85% of their 1RM with isoinertial load (STND), or performed 5 sets of 3 repetitions at 85% of their 1RM, with 30% of the total resistance coming from elastic band tension (BAND) between pre-post 9.1 meter sprint testing. Post-testing for 9.1 sprint time occurred immediately after the last set of squats (Post-Immediate) and on every minute for 4 minutes after the last set of squats (Post-1min, Post-2min, Post 3-min, and Post-4min)" (Wyland. 2015).

  Repeated-measures ANOVA statistical analyses revealed no significant changes in sprint time across post-testing times during the CTRL and STND condition.
  

  

  Figure 1: Mean sprint times (s) in all three conditions (Wlyand. 2015).

  During the BAND condition, sprint time significantly decreased from Post-Immediate to Post-4min (p = 0.002). The uniqueness of accommodating resistance could create an optimal post-activation potentiation effect to increase neuromuscular performance. "Coaches and athletes can implement heavy accommodating resistance exercises to their warm-up when improving acute sprint time is the goal," Wyland et al. conclude.
• Hold the DBs Right, When You Split Squat or do Walking Lunges (Stastny. 2015) - If you are like me and you don't switch off your brain while you're training you will have noticed that the side on which you hold the dumbbell (assuming you don't do them unilaterally loaded, i.e. with weight on both sides)during split squats or walking lunges can have a significant effect on "where", i.e. in which muscle, you feel the exercise.
  
  According to a recent study by Stastny et al. this effect may be mediated by the effect the positioning of the dumbbells will have on the activity of the muscles which was assessed by the Polish researchers in both trained (RT) and untrained (NT) individuals via EMG measures.
  

  

  Figure 2: EMG during the eccentric phase and kinematics of all exercises (Stastny. 2015).

  What Stastny et al. found was that the effect of DB positioning was significantly more pronounced in the previously trained subjects (RT) in which the researchers observed a higher eccentric Gluteus Medius (Gmed) amplitude (p<0. 001, η²=0.46) during all exercises and a higher eccentric VL amplitude (p<0.001, η²=0.63) during contralateral walking lunges.
  
  Further differences were found between contralateral (=holding the weight on the opposite side) walking lunges and ipsilateral (=holding the weight on the same side) walking lunges in both the RT (p<0.001, η²=0.69) and NT groups (p<0.001, η²=0.80), and contralateral walking lunges resulted in higher eccentric Gmed amplitudes. In other words, if you want to train the Gluteus Medius, the broad, thick, radiating muscle, situated on the outer surface of the pelvis, hold the weight on the opposite side of the trained leg. 
• Use Chains or Bands to Power Up (Soria-Gila. 2015) - The advice is not actually new. Specifically, the tip to use bands to "power up" was in the SuppVersity news before. In view of the fact that my own gym experience tells me, though, that hardly anyone follows this advise, it may be worth taking another look at the data in Figure 3.
  

  

  Figure 3: Forest plot of the results of the meta-analysis of random effects showing the difference in mean weighted 1RM and 95% CI detected for the bench press, leg press, back squat and squat (5.03 kg; 95% CI: 2.26–7.80 kg; Z = 3.55; P < 0.001) in upper body training and lower body training subjects. Gray squares indicate the intervention effect (Soria-Gila. 2015).

  The data was collected by scientists from the University of Granada in Spain, who reviewed seven studies involving 235 subjects and concluded that "VRT [variable resistance training using bands and chains] le[a]d[s] to a significantly greater mean strength gain (weighted mean difference: 5.03 kg; 95% CI: 2.26–7.80 kg; Z = 3.55; P < 0.001) than the gain recorded in response to conventional weight training" (Soria-Gila. 2015).
  
  Now this is the point where you're supposed to acknowledge that "[l]ong-term VRT training using chains or elastic bands attached to the barbell emerged as an effective evidence-based method of improving maximal strength both in athletes with different sports backgrounds and untrained subjects" (Soria-Gila. 2015) and go get your bro's chains and your mothers resistance training bands ;-)

Squat 8% More on Your 1-RM Max Effort Set, INSTANTLY! And Generate 200% More Power After 7 Weeks of Training With Band-Aids | more

Bottom line: I have to admit that nothing in this research update is revolutionary new, but I bet that you'd already forgotten about the benefits of using bands and chains and never do squat before an important sprint - bad mistakes ;-)

What probably isn't that much of a bad mistake is that you probably don't do unilaterally loaded split squats and walking lunges, anyway... in case you do, though, you do now know that the position of the load influences only the gluteus medius, not the vastus medialis, vastus lateralis and biceps femoris loads, all of which were assessed in the Stastny study as well. Whether it makes sense to do this exercise, though, remains questionable... well, unless you want to train your gluteus medialis | Comment on Facebook!

References:

• Soria-Gila, Miguel A Nsca; Chirosa, Ignacio J Ph.D; Bautista, Iker J Ph.D; Chirosa, Luis J Ph.D; Salvador, Baena. Effects Of Variable Resistance Training On Maximal Strength: A Meta-Analysis. Journal Of Strength & Conditioning Research (2015): Ahead Of Print.
• Stastny, Petr; Lehnert, Michal; Zaatar Zaki, Amr Mohamed; Svoboda, Zdenek; Xaverova, Zuzana. Does The Dumbbell Carrying Position Change The Muscle Activity During Split Squats And Walking Lunges? Journal Of Strength & Conditioning Research (2015): Ahead Of Print.
• Wyland, Timothy P.; Van Dorin, Joshua D.; Cisco Reyes, G. F. Phd Cscs. Post-Activation Potentation Effects From Accommodating Resistance Combined With Heavy Back Squats On Short Sprint Performance. Journal Of Strength & Conditioning Research (2015): Ahead Of Print. 

Caffeine for Peak Performance: 2.7% Increase in Max-Power Can Make All the Difference | Plus: Timing Matters! "The Caffeine Buzz" Occurs 30 Min After Blood Levels Peak

Yes, caffeine "doping" may in fact allow you to show up at the office in time, even when you've overslept (only useful if your tiredness is not due to a caffeine-abuse induced lack of sleep, obviously).

It sounds unbelievable, but up to now most of the research into the effects of caffeine on single bouts of brief ( ≤30 s) maximal exercise, predominantly using 30-s sprint cycling tests, shows no effect:  Bell et al. (2001), Collomp et al. (1991), Glaister et al. (2012), ... the list goes on. None of these and a bunch of other studies found increases in sprint performance irrespective of the amount and mode of caffeine supplementation.

Until today, only Anselme, Collomp, Mercier, Ahmaidi, and Prefaut (1992) found a significant effect of caffeine on maximal anaerobic power output (Wmax), as derived from a series of maximal 6-s cycle sprint tests. Unfortunately, study by Anselme et al. (1992) has some limitations including: (1) the use of a mixed gender sample; (2) the use of a fixed (250 mg), rather than a body mass-relative caffeine dose; (3) the absence of serum caffeine analysis to confirm caffeine abstinence; and (4) the absence of a familiarisation trial.

You can learn more about coffee at the SuppVersity

Remember: With Coffee More Won't Help More

Coffee - The Good, Bad & Interesting

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Caffeine's Effect on Testosterone, Estrogen & SHBG

The Coffee³ Ad- vantage: Fat loss, Appetite & Mood

Caffeine Resis- tance - Does It Even Exist?

The aim of Mark Glaister and his colleagues from the St. Mary's University in Twickenham, UK, was thus to "repeat the study by Anselme et al. (1992), addressing the aforementioned issues, in an attempt to provide a clear answer as to whether caffeine has an effect on sprint cycling performance" (Glaister. 2014).

Update: The Latest on Caffeine, Exercise, Fat & Weight Loss | more

It would be beside if I tried to keep you on the tenterhooks. From the headline of today's SuppVersity article you know after all that the experiment was a success. Glaister and his colleagues whose experimental protocol involved fourteen male Strength and Conditioning and Sport Science students, who were regularly active in strenuous physical activity instead of average coach potatoes (that's important, because the results will differ), was a success.

The scientists were able to show that caffeine will actually increase peak anaerobic power output in a series of 6-s cycle ergometer sprints, separated by 5-min passive recovery periods.

Figure 1: Statistical significant performance increases occur only at torques that allow the subjects to perform at their individual maximal aerobic power output (W_max) - torques that were not used in previous studies (Glaister. 2014)

As you can see in Figure 1 the differences which reached statistical significance only on the latter of the sprints were not earth-shatteringly large, but they were there and could very well make the difference between victory and defeat in any competitive athlete.

With sprints caffeine timing will probably matter! While Cox et al. (2002) have shown that timing is of minor importance for endurance athletes, it does probably matter when exactly the amount of caffeine in your blood peaks vs. when it declines or just begins to rise for sprints and other short duration activities.

With the caffeine in the study at hand being ingested ~50 minutes before the workout (right after the blood draw that was conducted 1h before the exercise test), Glaister et al. probably hit the "sweet spot", of maximal "restlessneess" indica- tive of max. catecholamine levels of which Kaplan et al. found that it occurs after approx. 1h and thus 30 minutes after the serum caffe- ine levels peak (Kaplan. 1997)

Bottom line: As Glaister et al. point out, it is possible that the use of fixed-torque factors that didn't allow the subjects to attain their individual maximal anaerobic power (W_max) may explain the difference to previous trials. If you look at the corresponding graphs in the original paper, you will in fact see that significant differences were not achieved at fixed torques of 0.4 and 0.8 Nm/kg.

In addition, some of the previous studies used very short sprints of only 30s duration which may have been too short in total duration and to long (individually) for the subjects to even achieve their individual W_max.

Last but not least, the timing of the caffeine ingestion, which is also going to be a topic of a separate SuppVersity article in the near future (see sneak peak in the box to the right) may have been a performance limiting factor as well. Overall, the study at hand does yet provide further support for the WADA decision to put caffeine on the WADA 2014 Monitoring Program - as of now, it is yet not officially prohibited | Comment on Facebook.

References:

• Anselme, F., et al. "Caffeine increases maximal anaerobic power and blood lactate concentration." European journal of applied physiology and occupational physiology 65.2 (1992): 188-191.
• Bell, Douglas G., I. R. A. Jacobs, and K. Ellerington. "Effect of caffeine and ephedrine ingestion on anaerobic exercise performance." Medicine and science in sports and exercise 33.8 (2001): 1399-1403.
• Collomp, K., et al. "Effects of caffeine ingestion on performance and anaerobic metabolism during the Wingate test." International journal of sports medicine 12.05 (1991): 439-443.
• Cox, Gregory R., et al. "Effect of different protocols of caffeine intake on metabolism and endurance performance." Journal of Applied Physiology 93.3 (2002): 990-999.
• Glaister, Mark, et al. "Caffeine and sprinting performance: dose responses and efficacy." The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research 26.4 (2012): 1001-1005. 
• Glaister, Mark, et al. "Caffeine supplementation and peak anaerobic power output." European journal of sport science ahead-of-print (2014): 1-7.
• Kaplan, Gary B., et al. "Dose‐Dependent Pharmacokinetics and Psychomotor Effects of Caffeine in Humans." The Journal of Clinical Pharmacology 37.8 (1997): 693-703.

Your Meat Consumption is Probably Not the Reason You're a Creatine Non-Responder: 5% Faster 50m-Sprint Time in 6 Days W/ 20g/day of Creatine for Vegetarians & Omnivores

It's hard to be a non-responder andno way to change it.

In some people the ingestion of creatine appears to be ineffective. Aside from minor diarrhea, when they increase the dosage to the 20g+ range per day in a desperate effort to reap the benefits of one of the, if not the only tried and proven natural ergogenic with significant (real world!) effects, these creatine non-responders don't get any results from either creatine monohydrate or any of the fancier, but mostly inferior "advanced creatines" you can buy at you local, national and international supplement vendor.

One of the commonest and eventually most reasonable explanation for "non-responding", I've heard is the hypothesis that non-responders have a high enough creatine intake from meat that would reduce any additional benefit from supplemental creatine to unmeasurable levels.

You can learn more about creatine at the SuppVersity

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Build 'Ur Own Buffered Creatine

And in fact, with beef and co being your best dietary creatine sources, it seems legit that meat-eaters would benefit less from supplemental creatine than vegetarians whose plant-based diets are more or less devoid of creatine.

By now you should yet be used to the fact that there are billions of things in the realm of nutrition, health and fitness that make perfect sense and still don't exist... and yes, the aforementioned hypothesis that omnivores won't benefit from creatine is one of them.

Figure 1: Higher increase in the previously low creatinine levels, but identical increase in 50m spring performance in vegetarians ans omnivores in response to 6 days on 20g of creatine (Seyedjalali. 2014)

If you take a look at the data in Figure 1, data from a recent study from the Chandrashekar Agashe  College  of  Physical Education in India, you will see that the omnivores had higher blood creatine (=used creatine) levels, but an identical increases in 50m sprinting performance.

The study at hand does therefore the findings of this study support the usefulness of short-term creatine supplementation at 20 grams  per  day  for  6  days, but it does not support the hypothesis that the corresponding increases in 4x 50 m dash run performance would be more pronounced in the vegetarian subjects, whose baseline creatine intake borders zero.

Are you like one of three subjects in Greenhaff's 1994 study?

Bottom line: If you belong to the small group of creatine non-responders you will obviously have to wait until someone identifies another hopefully non-genetic determinant of your non-existing response to the provision of creatine monohydrate or any other form of creatine. Until then, a highly efficient creatine recycling / endogenous production and / or the inability to use exogenous creatine remain the most likely and eventually the only realistic explanation for a phenomenon of which only the second one, i.e. the inability to use supplemental creatine as a means to increase muscular the creatine stores has scientific backup from one of the early studies on creatine (Greenhaff. 1994)

Reference:

• Greenhaff, P. L., et al. "Effect of oral creatine supplementation on skeletal muscle phosphocreatine resynthesis." American Journal of Physiology-Endocrinology and Metabolism 29.5 (1994): E725.
• Nimkar, Nayana, and Ph D. Physical Education. "Comparative Effect of Creatine Supplementation Blood Lactate and Intermittent Running Performance on Vegetarian and Non-Vegetarian Active Males." Heg©< e Òeew {veeieefjkeÀeb® ³ee jkeÌleoeye Je ceOegcesneJej efveJe [keÀ ÒeeCee³eece Je Deemeveeb® ee nesCeeN³ee HeefjCeeceeb® es DeO³e³eve-mebefoHejepe Me. Deewlee [s: 30.

Sprint & Strength Training - A Dynamic Duo For Synergistic Effects: Increased Fitness, Power & Endurance With HIIT + Heavy Lifting in Recreationally Active College Students

Sprinting allowed: Adding two high intensity sprinting interval sessions to a basic weight lifting template entails nothing, but benefits.

Beware, kid! You will become bulky and slow, if you lift weights." I am not quite sure if you've ever heard your high school track and field coach says something like this, but I am pretty sure that there are still coaches out there who would probably doubt the benefits of resistance training for a sprinter. Now, I am not so sure, if the reverse is true for weight lifting coaches, but if it was this would be equally counterproductive. A recent study from the Body Composition and Physical Performance Laboratory (wow, that's the place I would like to work at - at least if we go by the name ;-) at the University of Oklahoma does after all show quite conclusively that "performing concurrent sprint interval and strength training does not attenuate the strength response" and will at the same time lead to significant improvements in aerobic performance measures (Cantrell. 2014).

You can learn more about High Intensity Interval Training at the SuppVersity

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More ain't more w/ HIIT

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Whether you like it or not. Classic resistance training, and even more so powerlifting, is not exactly a VO2 builder - much contrary to high intensity interval sprints, obviously. Sprints like the ones the 14 recreationally active men completed in the study at hand. The latter were based on a modified Wingate protocol, in the course of which the subjects performed 4-6 bouts of all-out 20-s sprints.

• the concurrent training group (CT) trained on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday with half of the group strength training on Monday and Thursday, while the others performed strength training on Tuesday and Friday, the high intensity sprints were always performed on the other two days
• the strength training, only, group (ST) completed a general five-min warm-up on a cycle ergometer, before they did back squats, bench presses, leg extensions, leg curls, pull-downs, and shoulder presses in the four to six repetition range (i.e., 85 % 1RM) w/ 2 min rest intervals on two days of the week, only

Hardcore lifters would now probably expect that "hitting it hard" twice a week and "growing"  for the rest of the week would be the optimal strategy to increase athletic performance - way off the mark!
If you take a look at the data in Figure 1 it's plain to see that the "no sprinting", strength only group did not record additional strength gains.

Figure 1: Changes in performance parameters after 6 and 12 weeks (Cantrell. 2014)

Don't ask! No, the 3% difference, which is the difference between +37.8kg (ST) and +33.2kg (CT) is not significant. Unlike the differences in peak and aerobic power, which are huge... ah, I mean, "as significant as" the differences in VO2Max you can marvel in Figure 2.

Figure 2: VO2Max before, during and after the intervention (Cantrell. 2014)

Although VO2max may not be an ideal, it's still one of the best general fitness markers we have. And fitness, in turn is linear correlated with the maximal rate of fatty oxidation in healthy and type II diabetic individuals (Cataldo. 2014), associated with increased glycemic stability in type I diabetics (Singhvi. 2014) and linked to reduced obesity and diabetes risk in the general population.

A low VO2max and correspondingly messed up fitness status, on the other hand, has been linked insulin resistance and fasting hyperglycaemia (Ghouri. 2013), high blood pressure (Emaus. 2011), a loss of cerebral white matter integrity (Marks. 2011), lower blood viscosity and increased cardiovascular disease risk (Lee. 2012).

It is thus not surprising that Lee et al. write in their review of the ,ortality trends in the general population and the importance of cardiorespiratory fitnesst that the latter is "at least as important as the traditional risk factors, and is often more strongly associated with mortality." (Lee. 2010)

Identical gains on the bench, improved power and a fitness bonus - what more can you ask for? Well, I guess I know what you are probably asking for, now. Fat loss! Well, in the study at hand, the researchers didn't observe any changes in body composition.

The latter may be a results of the fact that the participants were already pretty fit (that's also likely to be the reason that their VO2 max suffered, when all the exercise they did was heavy lifting twice a week). Other studies, such as Hakkinen et al. (2003), Glowacki et al. (2004) and Mikkola et al. (2012) did observe improvements in body composition - pretty significant ones, in fact.

Figure 3: Changes in body fat (%) in the Mikkola study (Mikkola. 2012)

So, if an 11% greater increase in endurance capacity (based on time to exhaustion; not shown in any figure), 7% higher increases in peak and 10% greater increases in average power are not enough to motivate you to spend a couple of minutes sprinting along the track / on the treadmill twice a week, the fat loss results of the healthy male subjects in the previously cited study by Mikkola et al. (see Figure 3) could be the incentive you need to finally break out of your comfort = no results zone -  if you wanted to copy this regimen you'd have to add another 30min of steady state cardio before or after your HIIT sessions.

Reference:

• Cantrell, Gregory S., et al. "Maximal strength, power, and aerobic endurance adaptations to concurrent strength and sprint interval training." European journal of applied physiology (2014): 1-9.
• Cataldo, Angelo, et al. "Relationship between maximal fat oxidation and oxygen uptake: comparison between type 2 diabetes patients and healthy sedentary subjects." Journal of Biological Research-Bollettino della Società Italiana di Biologia Sperimentale 87.1 (2014).
• Emaus, Aina, et al. "Blood pressure, cardiorespiratory fitness and body mass: Results from the Tromsø Activity Study." Norsk epidemiologi 20.2 (2011).
• Ghouri, N., et al. "Lower cardiorespiratory fitness contributes to increased insulin resistance and fasting glycaemia in middle-aged South Asian compared with European men living in the UK." Diabetologia 56.10 (2013): 2238-2249. 
• Lee, Duck-chul, et al. "Review: Mortality trends in the general population: the importance of cardiorespiratory fitness." Journal of Psychopharmacology 24.4 suppl (2010): 27-35. 
• Lee, Duck-chul, et al. "Changes in fitness and fatness on the development of cardiovascular disease risk factorshypertension, metabolic syndrome, and hypercholesterolemia." Journal of the American College of Cardiology 59.7 (2012): 665-672.
• Marks, B. L., et al. "Aerobic fitness and obesity: relationship to cerebral white matter integrity in the brain of active and sedentary older adults." British journal of sports medicine 45.15 (2011): 1208-1215.
• Mikkola, J., et al. "Neuromuscular and cardiovascular adaptations during concurrent strength and endurance training in untrained men." International journal of sports medicine 33.09 (2012): 702-710.
• Singhvi, Ajay, et al. "Aerobic Fitness and Glycemic Variability in Adolescents with Type 1 Diabetes." Endocrine Practice (2014): 1-18.

No DHA & EPA in Non-Fish Fed Catfish. No Recovery From Ischemia W/ Low Carb. No Endocannabinoid Effects Without Medium Intensity Exercise. No Need to Tow Only Light Sleds

Sarah Reinertsen (click here to visit her webpage) was the first female leg amputee to participate and complete the Ironman (in 15h) and I bet she does not need the recent study by Galy et al. to be reminded of the benefits... no, the necessity of cycling your exercise intensity.

In 2005 Sarah Reinertsen (image on the right) was the first female leg amputee to participate and complete the Ironman and honestly this would probably suffice as a figure of the week, but since this is a historic event, it does not necessarily qualify as the SuppVersity Figure of the Week.

A figure that does qualify is the -15.7% decrease in post-exercise alveolar-capillary membrane diffusing capacity the highly trained triathletes in a soon-to-be-published paper by Galy et al. experienced after a 6-week "deload" (low training volume, intensity and frequency) period. What's interesting, though, is that the control group who remained on the same high training volume, intensity and frequency conditioning program all athletes had followed for the previous 30-weeks showed a similar, but less pronounced decrease in this measure of the diffusing capacity of oxygen and carbon dioxide between the lungs and the blood (-9.3%; Galy. 2013). This goes to show you that avoiding periods of lighter training in fear of the potential negative effects on your performance is no solution (learn more about detraining & co)

Only fillets from "fish-fed catfish" are worth your money

(Faukner. 2013) -- Feeding fish fish oil yields the highest concentration of omega-3 fatty acids in filets. That's the very unspectacular result of a recent study by scientists from the Department of Aquaculture and Fisheries at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. The main reason I still mention it is that feeding the catfish a diet that was "enhanced" with soybean oil, as it is common practice to increase the weight gain of the fish, yielded fillets with exactly zero DHA & EPA and a 3x lower total omega-3 to omega-6 ratio. 

Total n-3 & n-6 PUFA content (in % of total fat in the filets) and long-chain PUFA content (in % of PUFA content) + tabular overview of the fatty acid composition of the fillets from catfish on standard diet or diets supplemented with 2% additional fat from soy oil (SO), soy oil enhanced with CLAs (CLA), an algal source of DHA
(Schizochytrium sp.) combined with soybean oil, and refined fish oil (FO; Faukner. 2013)

Now you got to bear in mind that the latter figure includes the short-chain omega-3s which do not display the same health benefits as their long-chain cousins DHA & EPA. If we look strictly at these long-chains, the comparison would yield an n3/n-6 ratio that is at least 120x higher for the fish oil enriched diet (this is based on the assumption that the test had an accuracy of .01% n-3-LC-PUFA / % total fat)... ah, and in case you want CLA in your fish, you better make sure that it is part of the feed, 'cause fish quite obviously don't produce any of these omega-6 trans-fats in their tiny guts (soy-fed or not ;-).

High fat + low carb not the way to go after ischemic heart disease

(Liu. 2013) -- Despite the fact that the scientists from the University of Alabama at Birmingham obviously could not find human volunteers to participate in a controlled study into the effects of low carbohydrate (<10%) + high fat (60%; equal parts from milk fat, lard and vegetable oils) on the recovery of cardiac function after ischemia and reperfusion. The data the scientists gathered in a rodent study clearly suggests: High fat low carb diets are more than sub-optimal right after heart ischemic events.

Diet dependent expression of selected antioxidant enzymes and determinants of mitochondrial biogenesis on day 3 after heart ischemic events in overweight Sprague Dawley rats (Liu. 2013)

Compared to the obese rats in the control groups those being fat a high fat low carbohydrate diet (10%) after an experimentally induced ischemic episode of the heart (low blood / oxygen supply) showed increased ischemic myocardial injury and impaired recovery of function after reperfusion. Moroever, the low carb diet was associated with an attenuation of mitochondrial biogenesis and enhanced oxidative stress in the obese lab animals. And while it will still have to be seen, whether the same negative effects would occur in non-obese rodents, the majority of patients who are treated for ischemic heart disease have at least a couple of pounds too much on their waistline, so that "these findings may [in fact] have important implications for diet selection" (Liu. 2013) for the majority of patients with ischemic heart disease.

Addendum: Just a note on the "must be the omega-6 hypothesis" you are just pondering (a) the ratio of "bad" vegetable oils was as mentioned before 1/3 (the rest was lard and milk fat), (b) there is no chance you blame the observed effects on the "bad" omega-6s, alone, simply because they, or rather the long-chain n-6 PUFA arachidonic acid is a ligand to the PPAR-delta receptor and the latter is responsible for the health of the mitochondria in your heart including the mitochondrial DNA copy number (Wang. 2010)

Endocannabinoid modulation is a prerogative of moderate intensity exercise

Effect of treadmill running at different heart rates on the level of anandamide one of the major and best studied endocannabinoids (Raichlen. 2013)

(Raichlen. 2013) -. Despite all the advantages of high intensity interval training over classic moderate steady state cardio, the latter still yields surprisingly beneficial results especially in those trainees who still carry large amounts of body fat, are insulin resistant, inflamed or suffer from other metabolic derangements. In addition to that there is overwhelming evidence for the beneficial effects this type of exercise has on the psyche and overall cognitive health. A recent study from the School of Anthropology at the University of Arizona in Tucson suggests that this could be result of their ability to restore normal endocannaboid function and thus yield both physiological and psychological benefits (e.g restoration of the reward system, learn more; Glass. 1997).

Now this certainly doesn't mean that you should all of a sudden give up on high intensity exercise completely, after all Rakobowchuk et al. have just demonstrated that HIIT training (learn how it works) will not just improve your aerobic capacity, it will also decrease arterial stiffness and optimize heart rate dynamics (Rakobowchuk. 2013).  The results of the Raichlen study should however remind you that working out is exactly like dieting. Training and eating too single-sided is at least sub-optimal in most cases even detrimental.

Huskies will prevail: Heavy sled towing is way more effective than light sled towing

(Kawamori. 2013) -- Huskies will prevail: Heavy sled towing is way more effective than the widely recommended light load sled towing, where the weight of the weight will slow you down by only 10%. That's the result of a recent study from the School of Exercise and Health Sciences at the Edith Cowan University in Joondalup, Western Australia.

Outline of the training protocol used in the study. The groups differed only in the weight that was used on the sled to elicit a slow down of 10% (light group) and 30% (heavy group), respectively. All subjects trained twice per week.

After training with a sled that decreased the velocity by 30% and would thus be three times to heavy (according to the prevalent notion that 10% was best) the 10 physically active men who had been allocated to the heavy (=30% slow down) group increased both their 5- and 10-m sprint time by 5.7 ± 5.7% and 5.0 ± 3.5%, respectively (P < 0.05). The 11 subjects in the light sled (=10% slow down) group, on the other had increased only their 10-m sprint time and this increase was 2% lower than the one observed after heavy sled towing.

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That's it for today's installment of On Short Notice! I hope you are all enjoying the Easter weekend and that irrespective of whether this is or isn't a holiday in the the original sense for you, or not. And in case you ever feel the urgent desire to get up to speed with what's going on in the world of exercise, nutrition and supplementation science before the next SuppVersity post hits the Net, feel free to visit the SuppVersity Facebook wall.


References:

• Faukner J, Rawles SD, Proctor A, Sink TD, Chen R, Philips H, Lochmann RT. The Effects of Diets Containing Standard Soybean Oil, Soybean Oil Enhanced with Conjugated Linoleic Acids, Menhaden Fish Oil, or an Algal Docosahexaenoic Acid Supplement on Channel Catfish Performance, Body Composition, Sensory Evaluation, and Storage Characteristics. North American Journal of Aquaculture. 2013; 75(2). 
• Galy O, Maimoun L, Coste O, Manetta J, Boussana A, Préfaut C, Hue O. 6 Weeks of Low Volume, Low Intensity Training Aggravate Pulmonary Diffusing Capacity in Highly Trained Athletes. Int J Sports Physiol Perform. 2013 Mar 26.
• Glass M, Dragunow M, Faull RLM. Cannabinoid receptors in the human brain: a detailed anatomical and quantitative autoradiographic study in the fetal, neonatal and adult human brain. Neuroscience. 1997; 10:1665–1669
• Liu J, Lloyd SG. High-fat, low-carbohydrate diet alters myocardial oxidative stress and impairs recovery of cardiac function after ischemia and reperfusion in obese rats. Nutrition Research. March 26, 2013 [Epub ahead of print].
• Kawamori N, Newton RU, Hori N, Nosaka K. Effects of weighted sled towing with heavy versus light load on sprint acceleration ability. J Strength Cond Res. 2013 Mar 27. 
• Rakobowchuk M, Harris E, Taylor A, Cubbon RM, Birch KM. Moderate and heavy metabolic stress interval training improve arterial stiffness and heart rate dynamics in humans. Eur J Appl Physiol. 2013 Apr;113(4):839-49.
• Raichlen DA, Foster AD, Seillier A, Giuffrida A, Gerdeman GL. Exercise-induced endocannabinoid signaling is modulated by intensity. Eur J Appl Physiol. 2013 Apr;113(4):869-75.
• Wang P, Liu J, Li Y, Wu S, Luo J, Yang H, Subbiah R, Chatham J, Zhelyabovska O, Yang Q. Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor {delta} is an essential transcriptional regulator for mitochondrial protection and biogenesis in adult heart. Circ Res. 2010 Mar 19;106(5):911-9.

Beta Alanine Thwarts Baking Soda: Increased HIIT Sprint Performance With NaCHO3 - "Very Likely". Individual Effect of Beta Alanine - "Zero". Synergism? Negative.

Does beta alanine hamper instead of improve your sprinting performance?

Did you notice something? Yeah, there have been more news on testosterone boosters as of late than on sodium bicarbonate, here at the SuppVersity. You don't have worry though, I have not been bribed by the supplement industry. The reason that you have not heard about baking soda as of late was merely a pragmatic one: the absence of recent studies. With the soon-to-be-published paper by Kagan Ducker, Brian Dawson and Karen E. Wallman from the University of Western Australia the barren spell has ended - luckily.

Addendum: Only a couple weeks after this study had been published Bellinger et al. conducted a trial, where the expected synergy between beta alanine and sodium bicarbonate was to be seen. It will thus have to be elucidated in future trials, whether the different outcomes are exercise- or athlete-dependent | learn more.

Before we delve deeper into the carbonated results of the study at hand, I want to take the chance to briefly remind you that it's Thursday and thus about time to make sure you you don't miss the SuppVersity Science Round-Up at 1PM EST live on SuperHumanRadio. You are not sure if you can make it? Well, in that case you would be missing even more bicarbonate lovin', a discussion on the potential downsides of intermittent fasting, when you are not dieting, some clarifications on yesterday's Facebook news on the potential liver damaging effects of "cortisol blockers", the latest on the effects of DHEA on testicular health and testosterone levels, the optimal omega-6/omega-3 ratio for endocrine health, the life-shortening effects of large amounts of fish oil and much more... and while you are waiting for the show to start why don't you take a peek at what Ducker et al. have found?

Beta alanine added bonus or unworthy opponent?

Inspired by previous yet by far not very conclusive trials which found that the combination of the precursor of the intracellular H+ buffer beta alanine and the often looked down upon alkalizer sodium bicarbonate (cf. Sale. 2011; Bellinger. 2012; read more about the Bellinger study) could yield some benefits over the performance increases baking soda and not beta alanine(!) alone can produce, Ducker et al. wanted to elucidate whether a preload with 3-6g/day of beta-alanine for 28 days either alone or in combined with a pre-exercise dose of 0.3g/kg baking soda would lead to improvements in prolonged repeated-sprint performance in team-sport athletes.

The Australians hypothesized that both, beta-alanine supplementation and an acute dose of sodium bicarbonate, would separately result in improvements in repeated-sprint performance, but that combining both treatments would lead to a greater improvement in repeated sprint ability (RSA) compared to either supplement on its own.

Figure 1: Relative changes in sprint performance (sprint time) for all three and each set of 6x20m sprints (Ducker. 2013)

A brief glance at the data in figure 1 does suffice that the latter was not the case. While it was to be suspected that the 28-day preloading the six of the 24 male competitive football, soccer and hockey players who had been randomized to the NaHCO3 + BA group would yield at least some yet probably not significant performance increase in the during the 3 sets of 6 x 20m sprinting (25 s between sprins, 4 min active recovery between the three sets), the exact opposite was the case.

Contrary to beta alanine, creatine is a perfect match to baking soda... or rather vice versa (learn more)

"Sodium bicarbonate supplementation (alone) resulted in the best repeated-sprint performance, with some improvement also seen (but to a lesser extent) when a combination of beta-alanine and sodium bicarbonate was used. This outcome was surprising, as it was hypothesised that combining supplementation of sodium bicarbonate (extracellular blood buffer) and beta-alanine (intracellular muscle buffer via carnosine) would result in enhanced repeated-sprint performance beyond what is possible with either supplement alone." (Ducker. 2013)

So, contrary to bicarbonate alone, which was "likely" and "very likely" to produce increases in overall total sprint times (TST) for each individual set, as well as for first sprint (Set 2 and 3) and best sprint time, the combined supplement did not only fail to increase the likelihood that these effects would occur in similarly trained athletes / gymrats, but actually reduced to "possible" and "likely".

---

 Squats, 8 x 12, Leg Press 6 x 12, Leg Ext. 6 x 12; that's the Quads routine Serge Nubret (photo) trained twice a week in conjunction with chest – it stands out of question that this is the kind of workout that benefits most from an acid buffer like NaHCO(3) (read more)!

Bottom line: The performance decrements the scientists observed when they combined the 0.3g/kg NaCO3 with a 28-day beta alanine preload is actually pretty surprising and that despite the fact that the short sprints are not actually the strength of the carnosine precursor. Significant but with ~2% still pretty pathetic performance increases effects can only be expected with longer sprints in the 90-150s range, and previous studies by Sweeney et al. and Saunders et al. have already confirmed its useless in similar scenarios (Sweeny. 2010; Saunders. 2012). So while it may be debatable in how far the performance decrease may be reproducible in larger scale studies, there is no debating of the scientists conclusion that

"Supplementation with beta-alanine may not be ergogenic for these sports [football, soccer and hockey], which require repeated short (~2-4 s) sprints with brief (~15 – 30 s) recovery periods." (Ducker. 2013)

What remains to be seen, though is whether adding the BA on top of the bicarbonate does actually "result in a lower magnitude of performance improvements than sodium bicarbonate supplementation in isolation" (Ducker. 2013). And would thus be downright ergolytic. But hey, maybe the guys had just depleted their histidine sources (learn more about histidine) - in that case they would have become fat not slow, or maybe both? Just kiddin' ;-)

References: 

• Bellinger PM, Howe ST, Shing CM, Fell JW. Effect of combined β-alanine and sodium bicarbonate supplementation on cycling performance. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2012 Aug;44(8):1545-51.
• Ducker KJ, Dawson B, Wallman KE. Effect of beta-alanine and sodium bicarbonate supplementation on repeated-sprint performance. J Strength Cond Res. 2013 Mar 21.
• Sale C, Saunders B, Hudson S, Wise JA, Harris RC, and Sunderland CD. Effect of beta alanine plus sodium bicarbonate on high-intensity cycling capacity.  Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise. 2011; 43:1972-1978.
• Saunders B, Sale C, Harris R, and Sunderland C.Effect of beta-alanine supplementation on repeated sprint performance during the Loughborough Intermittent Shuttle Test. Amino Acids. 2012; 43: 39-47.
• Sweeney KM, Wright GA, Brice AG, and DobersteinST. The effect of beta-alanine supplementation on power performance during repeated sprint activity.  Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 2010; 24:79-87.

A Double Dose of HIIT vs. Aerobics. Hazelnuts, Mushrooms, Strawberries = Polyphenol Powered Superfoods W/ Anti-Cancer & -Diabesity Effects. Plus: Backdoor to DHT

Actually the first post in today's installment of On Short Notice is a direct continuation of the SuppVersity Exercise Science Week with an intriguing novel contribution to the never-ending steady state vs. HIIT debate by scientists from the University of Birmingham (UK)

Hypothyroidism kills and therefore the SuppVersity Figure of the Week comes from a study on the effect of hypothyroidism on all-cause mortality from Denmark (Thvilum. 2013). The respective data comes from an observational cohort study and spans the years between January 1, 1978 and December 31, 2008. With an increased risk of  +52% (after stratification for the figure dropped to "only" +21%)  in the 3587 singletons, +61% in dizygotic twin pairs, but only +7% in monogyzotic twins, it's yet not quite clear, whether it's the being hypothyroid or rather having the disposition of developing respective problems is actually associated with an increased mortality. After all, you would expect similarly high levels in monogyzotic twins as in the rest of the population, if it was "only" about having a high TSH, which still is the only "official" accepted marker of clinical hypothyroidism.

Day 4 of the Exercise Science Week - A Double Dose of HIIT vs. Steady State Aerobics

(Cocks. 2012 & Shephard. 2012) -- If you ignored the titles and just read the first part of the methodological section it seems as if the two studies that were subsequently published in The Journal of Physiology late in 2012 were identical. What's identical, though is just the data set the two papers by scientists from the University of Birmingham are based on. The latter was acquired during a six-week experiment in the course of which 16 previously sedentary young men (BMI ~23kg/m²; age 21.5y) were randomized to a

• 

  34% increase in time to exhaustion, +91% increase in total work & exponentiated lean mass gains in response to HIIT + NAHCO3 (read more)

  classic steady state endurance training regimen - subjects cycled at workloads equivalent to ∼65% of their pre-established VO2peak for 40min in the first 2weeks, increasing to50min in the following 2 weeks, and 60min in the final 2 weeks; their obviously improved VO2peak was reassessed after 3weeks of training and workload adjusted accordingly

• sprint interval training  - subjects performed 30s "all out" (Wingate test) on a cycle ergometer using a load equivalent to 0.075kg per kg of body weight; each of the Wingate tests was followed by a period of 4.5 min of recoery (at 30W; <50rpm); the number of sprints increased from 4 to 6 sprints with one additional sprint every 2 weeks

As the scientists point out, all participants trained three (SIT) respectively five (ET) times a week for 6 weeks, and were excluded from the study if they were absent from more than two (SIT), respectively three (ET) sessions.

Figure 1: Overview of the relative changes of selected outcome variables measured in the "two" studies
(Cocks. 2012; Shephard. 2012)

While Cocks et al. analyzed the microvascular density and eNOS content of the muscles, the Shephard study, which was published a couple of weeks later, took a closer look at markers of intramuscular triglyceride breakdown and the expression of the anti-lipolytic lipid droplet-associated proteins perilipin 2 and 5. In previous studies, the researchers had observed that these proteins which are believed to protect the lipid droplets in adipose tissue from the "fat dissolving" lipase enzymes, appear to have a very different effect in the musculature, where PLIN2 and especially PLIN5 seem to act as key regulators of intra-muscular lipolysis and triglyceride breakdown (Shephard. 2012).

More similarities than differences?!

Figure 2: Selected parameters of body composition and blood glucose metabolism expressed relative to pre-exercise levels. (Shephard. 2012)

If we take a look at the outcomes of the studies (see figure 1, figure 2), it's not difficult to see that despite minor differences, most of the measured parameters in the Shephard study the observed differences, such as an increase of 7% in VO2Peak in the SIT vs. 15% in the ET group did not reach statistical significance. The same is true for the effect on the mitochondrial density, the insulin sensitivity, the maximal power WMax and the changes in body composition (see figure 2). Only the respiratory exchange ratio (RER), i.e. the ratio of carbohydrates to fats that were used during a 60-min endurance regimen at 65% of the VO2Peak, changed only in response to endurance training.

Despite this difference, the usage of intramuscular triglycerides (IMTGs) during exercise was increased after both trials:

"In comparison to pre-training, net IMTG break- down in type I fibres was significantly greater following training (training×time interaction; P<0.05), with no difference in net IMTG breakdown between groups. Both pre- and post-training, the reduction in IMTG content in type I fibres was attributed to decreases in IMTG density after SIT (pre-training, 21±13%; post-training, 38±7%) and ET (pre-training, 20±17%; post-training, 32±8%)." (Shephard. 2012)

The greater increase in IMTG response to exercise in the SIT (HIIT) group appears to be in line with the previously mentioned role of perilipin 5 (PLIN5) as a driving force of intracellular muscle triglyceride mobilization. After all, the PLIN5 expression of the interval training group increased to a significantly greater degree than the one of the endurance training group. A subsequent correlation analysis confirmed strong associations of PLIN2 und PLIN5 with IMTG breakdown and modest associations with muscular insulin sensitivity.

Para- vs. sympathetic overtraining: I would venture the guess that most of you will think of performance decrements, fatigue, depression, increased sleeping needs, constant weight or even fat gain, and lowered heart rate, i.e. the characteristic symptoms of parasympathetic (=addisonoid) overtraining, whenever they hear or read the term "overtraining". Its evil sympathetic twin, which is also known as basedowoid overtraining (named after morbus basedow) and likewise associated with performance decrements and fatigue yet in combination with an almost stimulant like restlessness, disturbed sleeping patterns, weight loss, and accelerated heart rate, is yet way less know. So, if you wake up in the middle of the night sweating like a pig and with a heart rate similar to the one you had during your last HIIT session, you better cut back on the weight lifting and HIIT side of your regimen - w/out necessary increasing the aerobics, though.

Bottom line: If you combine these mechanistic insights, with the main outcomes of the Cocks paper, which found ET and SIT "equally effective at decreasing arterial stiffness and increasing skeletal muscle capillarisation and eNOS content", even HIIT (or SIT, as it's called here) haters will be hard pressed to argue with Shephard et al.'s conclusion that..

"[d]espite the large differences in duration and energy expenditure between SIT and ET, we provide novel evidence indicating that SIT induces similar improvements [in almost all measured parameters and] provides a time-efficient exercise alternative to achieve improvements in aerobic fitness and insulin sensitivity." (Shephard. 2012)

So, now it's up to you 3x per week HIIT or 5x per week SIT? The answer appears to be clear, however, for people who are also strength training on a higher volume / density regimen, the addition of only 2-3 low(er) intensity aerobic sessions may still be the "safer" alternative in order not to overtax the sympathetic nervous system and keep a balance between sympathetic and parasympathetic activation in your routine.

More, really short news

Put introduction here

• Hazelnuts: A polyphenolic "superfood" that's prebiotic by nature (Montella. 2013) -- The skin of hazelnuts has only recently been identified as "one of the richest edible sources of polyphenolic compounds" - a polyphenol source that can compete with green tea and coffee, by the way (Clani. 2012).
  
  

  

  Hazelnut peel is laden with gut friendly prebiotics & antioxidant plyphenols

  In a paper that's soon going to be published in Food Chemistry researchers from the Italy and the United States report that the skin does also contain a whole host of potent pre-biotics:

  "Over thirty complex free oligosaccharides, composed mainly of galacturonic acid and N-acetylgalactosamine, were characterized for the first time in the present study. Their concentration ranged between 16 mg and 34 mg per g of extract." (Montella. 2013)

  And if you find that unfair, because you are allergic, you may be interested in a 2005 paper by Enrique et al. who found that their sublingual immunotherapy for hazelnut food allergy worked quite well in a first randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study with a standardized hazelnut extract (Enrique. 2005)

• 

  Inonotus obliquus (chaga mushroom) does actually looks like a tumor, but contains compounds that have the ability to kill prostate and breast cancer cells (photo by Tomas Čekanavičius)

  "Eat your mushrooms!" mothers are probably saying that not often enough (Kalogeropoulus. 2013; Ma. 2013) -- According to a recent study by Nick Kalogeropoulus et al. all five five wild edible mushrooms species (Lactarius deliciosus, Lactarius sanguifluus, Lactarius semisanguifluus, Russula delica, Suillus bellinii) from Lesvos Island, the researchers recently analyzed in their laboratory contained significant amounts of polyphenols, with the more abundant ones being p-OH-benzoic acid, p-OH-phenylacetic acid, o-coumaric acid, ferulic acid and chrysin. Moroever, the Greek scientists were also able to isolate the riterpenic acids oleanolic and ursolic acid (yeah, that stuff that's currently sold as test booster).
  
  If you add to that the not even published results of Ma, Chen, Dong and Lu, who fount that the ergosterol, ergosterol peroxide and trametenolic acid in Inonotus obliquus (chaga mushroom), another mushroom that has been used in TCM for centuries, do not only have potent anti-oxidant activity, but can also kill human prostate and breast cancer cells, the initially raised question, why your mother never told you to "eat your mushrooms" suddenly appears in a very different light, doesn't it?

• Did you know that the aggregate-accessory fruit (with the green dots on its flesh being its "nuts") has the highest total antioxidant capacity, when it's still green (see facebook news), can contain up to 160mg/g of fisetin (Kimira. 1998) and that the latter has been shown to reduce thyroid peroxidase activity (Divi. 1996) and thus to protect against thyroid cancer? Fisetin is also supposed to have anti-allergic and anti-angiogenic (pro - cardiovascular health) effects.
  Strawberry polyphenol fisetin ameliorates hepatic steatosis and lowers circulating glucose concentrations (Cho. 2013) -- While it's still a couple of days until the Strawberry season will begin it's still good to know in time that the fisetin content in strawberries can ameliorate hepatic steatosis and decrease blood glucose levels by increasing GLUT-4 (glucose transporter 4) expression in a rodent model of diet induced obesity.
  
  Unfortunately, the changes the Korean scientists observed in response to a human equivalent dose of 130mg/day was statistically significant yet not uniquely impressive and "thanks" to the increase in PPAR-gamma and the non-selective increase in GLUT-4 receptor expression (measured only on adipocytes), the rodents in the supplemented group got exactly as obese as their unsupplemented pears. Nevertheless, better "weighty" and healthy than skinny fat and sick, right? 

• Scientists find alternative androgen pathway - DHT synthesis from progestorone more effective than from testosterone (Kamrath. 2013) -- Usually it's my friend Carl Lanore who says that he, respectively Super Human Radio has the smartest listeners. I would hovewer argue that listening is easier than reading the stuff I produce (including sentences that are longer than the paragraphs of most other bloggers) and therefore it's no wonder that SuppVersity readers must be at least as smart ;-)
  
  

  

  The alternative pathway to androgen (DHT) synthesis as proposed by Kamrath et al.

  That being said, I just received a facebook message from Rob, who pointed me towards a very recent paper claiming that there was an "alternative androgen synthesis pathway" in human beings. "Alternative pathway?" Sounds like the adrenal gland and the DHEA => Testosterone => DHT pathway, right? That's what I thought, as well, but actually this one is different. As the pediatric scientists from the JLU Gießen (Germany) point out in their review of the literature, there is a hitherto largely overlooked "backdoor" by the means of which 17α-hydroxyprogesteron instead of it's 12,30 lyase product androstendione is 5α-reduced to 17α-hydroxy-dihydroprogesteron, which is then, in a 4-step process converted to 17α-hydroxyallopregnanolon (2α-HSD), Androsteron (12,20-Lyase), androstandiol (17b-HSD) and finally DHT (3α-HSD).

  "This so-called "backdoor" synthesis pathway appears to play an important role especially during the development of male fetuses, since respective defects will result in a suppressed virilization in boys." (Kamrath. 2013)

  Another context that's probably more important for most of you is the role of the "backdoor" in castrate (and probably also androgen suppression) resistant prostate cancer, where this alternative pathway jumps in, when the regulate substrate for DHT synthesis by a mere change in the specific 5α-reductase subtypes.

Now don't tell me you still haven't had enough for today? I mean, with the long article on the sprint vs. endurance study you've just gotten day 4 of the SuppVersity Exercise Science Week, and with the other short notice items, even those of you who have been missing nutrition and other news within the past couple of days should have gotten way more than your money's worth - after all, the SuppVersity is still free!

Since the same also goes for the facebook news, I'd suggest you head over to the SuppVersity Facebook Wall, where you will find roughly half a dozen of additional short news items every day. Examples? This is a selection of what you could already have known if you were already a friend, fan or whatever you call that on facebook, when you click on the "like button" at www.facebook.com/SuppVersity:

Just out: Part II of my interview with Sean Casey. This time about the A-Z of supplements for strength, endurance and all other trainees who want to boost their health and performance (read more)

• Skin protection from within - Orally ingested green tea or rather respective catechin metabolites end up in your skin and protects it from UV radiation (read more)
• Iron deficiency starts in the gut - Epidemiological findings confirm: Even people with mild gastrointestinal inflammatory bowel disease need more iron and co-factors in their diet to prevent deficiency than healthy individuals (read more)
• Hormonal contraception increases risk of HIV infection - Medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA) suppresses both innate and adaptive arms of the immune system resulting in a reduction of host resistance to invading pathogens (read more)
• Grape seed and peel extracts stop working, when they are "purified" - Another case where man shalt not isolate what nature put together, if he wants to have the active ingredients survive the digestive process (read more)

And when you are done with those and i have not yet posted another handful of news, head over to Part II of my interview on CasePerfomance.com. Afterwards, you hit the power button switch off this damn machine and have a nice weekend with family and/or friends. 

References:

• Calani L, Dall'Asta M, Derlindati E, Scazzina F, Bruni R, Del Rio D. Colonic metabolism of polyphenols from coffee, green tea, and hazelnut skins. J Clin Gastroenterol. 2012 Oct;46 Suppl:S95-9.
• Cocks M, Shaw CS, Shepherd SO, Fisher J, Ranasinghe AM, Barker TA, Tipton KD, Wagenmakers AJ. High intensity interval and endurance training are equally effective in increasing muscle microvascular density and eNOS content in sedentary males. J Physiol. 2012 Sep 3.
• Divi RL, Doerge DR. Inhibition of thyroid peroxidase by dietary flavonoids. Chem Res Toxicol. 1996 Jan-Feb;9(1):16-23.
• Enrique E, Pineda F, Malek T, Bartra J, Basagaña M, Tella R, Castelló JV, Alonso R, de Mateo JA, Cerdá-Trias T, San Miguel-Moncín Mdel M, Monzón S, García M, Palacios R, Cisteró-Bahíma A. Sublingual immunotherapy for hazelnut food allergy: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study with a standardized hazelnut extract. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2005 Nov;116(5):1073-9.
• Kalogeropoulos N, Yanni AE, Koutrotsios G, Aloupi M. Bioactive microconstituents and antioxidant properties of wild edible mushrooms from the island of Lesvos, Greece. Food Chem Toxicol. 2013 Jan 24. 
• Kamrath C, Hartmann MF, Wudy S. The alternative androgen synthesis pathway in humans. Klin Padiatr. 2013 Jan;225(1):3-7. [Article in German]
• Kimira M, Arai Y, Shimoi K, Watanabe S. Japanese Intake of flavonoids and isoflavonoids from foods Journal of Epidemiology. 1998; 8:168–175.
• Ma L, Chen H, Dong P, Lu X. Anti-inflammatory and anticancer activities of extracts and compounds from the mushroom Inonotus obliquus Food Chemistry. Feb 2013 [in press]
• Montella R, Coïsson JD, Travaglia F, Locatelli M, Bordiga M, Meyrand M, Barile D, Arlorio M.dentification and Characterization of Water and Alkali Soluble Oligosaccharides from Hazelnut Skin (Corylus avellana L.) Food Chemistry. Feb 2013 [in press]
• Shepherd SO, Cocks M, Tipton KD, Ranasinghe AM, Barker TA, Burniston JG, Wagenmakers AJ, Shaw CS. Sprint interval and traditional endurance training increase net intramuscular triglyceride breakdown and expression of perilipin 2 and 5. J Physiol. 2012 Dec 17.
• Thvilum M, Brandt F, Almind D, Christensen K, Hegedüs L, Brix TH. Excess Mortality in Patients Diagnosed With Hypothyroidism: A Nationwide Cohort Study of Singletons and Twins. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2013 Jan 30.